Current Account must confess to being a bit confused about how the machinery of the State regulates (or, in some cases, doesn't regulate) the media.
On one hand, we hear Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) chairman Conor Maguire opining negatively about Ulster Television's (UTV) £31.3 million (€39.7 million) takeover of Cork-based County Media, mainly because UTV has gone the whole hog and bought all of County Media. On the other hand, we have seen regional newspaper groups like the Kilkenny People and the Derry Journal being bought out completely by Scottish Radio and Trinity Mirror without anybody batting an eyelid.
Where regional newspapers are concerned, it seems that as long as the competition regulators are happy that no competition issues arise then anybody can go out and buy anything. In the case of radio stations, the rules are different and it's a "negative" for anybody to have more than a 27 per cent stake.
Where's the logic in that? What makes radio stations different? There seems to be a very precious attitude towards radio stations and that, somehow, the airwaves need more regulation than newspaper pages.
Quite frankly, regional newspapers may, in many cases, be extraordinarily parochial, but they have served their communities well and have thrived as a result. Can local radio stations not do the same without the dubious protection of shareholding limits?
One can only assume that UTV did its legal homework on radio ownership before it bid for County Media. If the IRTC blocks the bid, one can see this case ending up in the hands of m'learned friends in the Four Courts.
